The Mystery Writer

Hot and Cold

Darcy woke with a sudden start, swinging herself into a sitting position and found that she immediately regretted the action. Her head spun, or maybe it was the room spinning around her that made her feel nauseous and the rest of her body throbbed in pain. After rolling onto her stomach, she cradled her head in her hands. It seemed like she posed like this for hours when she realized she had no memories of getting in to bed herself. She lifted her head and for the first time noticed she was still in her work clothes. Something had gone very very wrong. She turned in bed, sitting up to find a glass of water, several pills and a note on her bedside table.

You fainted outside. I couldn't leave you there, so I hope

you don't mind the intrusion. Please try to understand my

position. You may want to consider going to the hospital

for fluids. Take the pills. They'll help.

-L-

After reading the note, Darcy snorted unceremoniously. She never wanted the unnecessary attention to be thrown on her so she would never take such a personal, yet trivial, matter and try to make noise about it. She knew Leo didn't know her well enough, though, to trust her with such a secret.

Popping the pills into her mouth, she wondered suddenly why she was unconsciously following his orders. She shrugged and snuggled back into her covers. She had survived her unconsciousness in his presence, surely she could trust him with a few pills.

Well over half the day had passed before Darcy finally woke again. This time she felt a million times better especially after showering and getting dressed. Everything seemed perfectly normal again after a small portion of scrambled eggs and toast.

_____________________________________

The next morning, Max and Darcy stood shoulder to shoulder while staring at the large day-to-day calendar that was placed on the kitchen island. It was placed so that it would not escape their notice. Malakai, Leo's manager, stood on the other side of the island with his arms crossed in front of him and a dubious smirk played on his lips.

“What is the point in agreeing to a reality show if you are just going to hide away in your studio all the time? Does he really choose to hide while forcing us to stay here all day? And studio time is scheduled all week!” Max was frustrated, as he often was recently, but now he was believing that they had signed a pointless contract to be stuck in a deal that would not be beneficial to either of them. Darcy, although admittedly angry at the current schedule, she couldn't really be surprised. Leo James had no reason to want her company or to confide in her.

“Leo schedules studio time weeks in advance. He won't be bothered to change that schedule just for the likes of you. Besides, this is what he does. This is his reality.” Malakai huffed in his usual foul behavior before stalking towards, Darcy assumed, the studio.

“Well Max, I think you can take the day off. Go spend time with your fiancé.” Earlier, when Darcy had been getting her make up done at Christine's camper that was parked mere feet from Leo's home, Max arrived with an ear-splitting grin. She had known immediately that her friend had popped the big question. They had been in the midst of a congratulatory hug when Leo James interrupted to tell them they were welcome inside his luxurious home. Before they had time to react, he was gone.

“I'm not leaving you here alone! Besides, he will just use the opportunity to say I dipped out or that I'm lazy. I'm not taking the chance.” Darcy glanced around the kitchen, etching the space into her memory before returning her attention to Max. He looked ready to start an argument with her which she just held her hands up in defeat. She wasn't going to fight with him on the subject. Her attention then wondered to the live cameras in the kitchen and the ones that were in the living area. She didn't like the idea of being there like sitting ducks for the whole world to see.

“How about we film the apartment then? I'm sure there are many fans who'd like an inside glimpse of Leo's home.” Max didn't comment but started preparing for their first shoot inside of this luxurious home. Together they explored and commented on the house, talking about the interior design and the style that Leo had added himself.

Darcy hesitated in front of the door that was now marked with her name. She paused for only a moment, knowing that Max and the world was waiting for her reaction. She couldn't help but to believe that everything seemed so surreal until now. Leo James had kept to his word and gave her a living space that was just for her. For so long she had only depended on herself to provide anything she needed. A strange, unknown feeling began to bubble up inside of her. How strange that this man, this celebrity, was now forced to take care of her in a sense.

“Everything ok?” The voice was soft, yet heavy. Darcy reacted quickly, seeing Max had stopped recording and had stepped to the side respectfully. Leo stood in the doorway with the same familiar loneliness in his eyes.

“We were rushed to set everything up yesterday. If you find you're missing anything you can let Malakai know. I've instructed him to take care of anything you need.” Without waiting for a response, Leo turned to leave.

“Thank you for the other night.” There was a pause though a buzz of tense energy seemed to pass between them. Then Leo left and snapped the tension in the air.

“The other night?” Max raised an eyebrow, questioning Darcy. She shook her and motioned for him to get ready to film once more. She wanted to finish this last segment quickly. As she introduced her bedroom she noted the pale lavender walls with cream and dark lavender accents. Each wall had art that only enhanced the masterpiece of the room. In the center stood a four poster bed, with a desk and work chair just beside it. There were bookshelves that were cleared for anything she might have brought with her. The space left Darcy speechless and even Max seemed to be impressed with the thoughtfulness put in to the room. She had to remind herself that they were rolling film and quickly snapped back into reality when there was a large 'ding-dong' that rang through the entire house.

After motioning to Max to cut filming, they walked back out to the kitchen to see what was going. They found Malakai returning to the studio with a bag that wafted a delicious scent. Darcy's stomach rumbled at the thought of eating something that smelled so unbelievably good.

“We never did discuss what you could do for meals. He wouldn't disagree with delivery, would he?” Max gave her a knowing but regrettable look.

“Lets play it safe and have Christine pick something up for now. I'll discuss more arrangements with Leo later.”

_______________________________

“Bye Max.”

“Bye Darcy. If anything happens, don't hesitate to call, ok? If you're worried or he attempts anything...”

“I'll be fine! Now go!”

Darcy laughed as she watched Max retreat to his vehicle before waving to Christine who was driving by. She waited till they were both of a sight before turning back towards Leo's house. She barely registered the tapping of running feet before being tugged backwards, landing on her back. The attack left her stunned and breathless. Then, there was a body on top of her.

“You gold digger! Leave this house now! Or else!” The woman had long, flowing brown hair. Her eyes seemed to be a little crazed. Darcy sucked in a breath as she did her best to remain calm. “Leave Leo's side now!”

“I'm only here for my job. I don't want anything from him.”

The young woman pulled a short knife from her pocket, wielding it against Darcy's throat. Darcy whimpered suddenly, just know beginning to realize the threat she was facing. She was too afraid to scream for help in case it would enrage the woman. Her best bet would be to talk the woman down.

“Leo never lets anyone close to him. Why you? Why is it you?” The woman began to shudder and Darcy could only hope her tears would be enough of a distraction.

“I'm here to tell the truth about Leo James. I will only report the sides he shows me, ok?” Darcy attempted to talk to the crazed fan. The woman lashed out, using the knife to s***h across Darcy's cheek. Darcy cried out and closed her eyes as she felt the pain instantly.

“Hey!” Darcy barely recognized the weight lifted off of her or the running of feet by her. She stayed motionless for a long time, her mind blanking at anything going on around her. She shuddered when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

“Malakai! Come help me.”

“Darcy, open your eyes. It's Leo.”

Darcy took a deep breath before slowly opening her eyes. She recognized the celebrity and his manager looking down at her. A rush of air left her as she recognized that her attacker was gone. Rolling away from Leo, she heaved onto the sidewalk concrete as the nerves and relief seemed to drain her.

“Hey, hey. You're alright.” She felt a hand rub at the middle of her back, but she did her best to put distance between herself and whoever was touching her. When she stood to her feet, she realized she was shaking so bad that it was hard to stand straight. Leo stood only a foot away, one hand was extended towards her as though he thought she might need it.

“Let's go inside. Your cheek needs to be looked at. I should call the police.” Leo watched her for a moment before turning to go inside. Malakai stuck around, watching her as she struggled with what to do. Part of her wanted to run as far away as possible while the other part of her felt as though she'd be safest inside at the moment.

A few moments later she was sitting at the kitchen bar while Malakai helped clean her wound. She winced and squirmed, but otherwise refused to make a sound. Leo supervised the situation while holding a steaming mug under his nose. Once the wound stopped bleeding and covered by a small gauze dressing, Leo placed the mug down.

“I'll call the police to have them do a witness report.”

“Please, don't. It would be too much of a hassle and I'd rather just go to bed.” Darcy stared at the corner of the bar. She felt better now; safer. “It seems as though your fans are taking my staying here very hard.”

Leo swallowed and stared at her before glancing in the direction of the live camera. Darcy hopped off the bar stool which regained his attention. “I've had many scandals over my career, but I've never been seen with someone who is basically a stranger before. Not to mention that the stranger is living in my house.”

Darcy smiled and accepted his answer. She should have prepared for his fans' reaction to this new reality show and was now ashamed that she had been attacked so easily.

“Well thank you for helping me.” Darcy lowered her gaze for a moment. That is when she saw the little drops of blood falling on the kitchen tile. She raised her hand enough to point at where the blood was coming from. “Leo, you're bleeding!”

Malakai was up in an instant, inspecting Leo's injury. Even Leo seemed to be surprised as the cut on his hand as though he didn't realize he had been injured.

“You need to go to the hospital!” Malakai's voice rose in urgency. Leo glared at him and quickly shook his head.

“I'm not going to the hospital for this little cut. I'll be fine.” Leo's eyes landed on Darcy for the briefest of moments. She wanted to laugh, thinking he wouldn't be caught dead going to the hospital since she had refused to.

It took a few minutes for Malakai to clean and bandage Leo's hand while they argued the point about going to the hospital. Darcy was about to silently retreat to her room.

“Wait, Darcy.” She kept her back to Leo. She was surprised when he was suddenly in front of her. “Listen, if you need the hospital...”

“I'm fine. Really! Ah! I did have something I wanted to ask you though.” Leo raised his eyebrows before glancing towards the live camera. It was becoming blatantly obvious how conscious Leo was of the cameras and how uncomfortable he was with them. Darcy shook her head and lowered her gaze. “We never discussed what I could do for meals while I stay here.”

When Leo remained silent, Darcy looked back up to find him staring at her. When their eyes met it seemed liked Leo was suddenly snapped out of a daze.

“Of course I wouldn't keep you from using the kitchen or ordering take out. You can use anything that's available to you.” Leo held her gaze firmly, though the air around them seemed to grow colder.

“Thank you. And, are you really going to be in your studio all week?”

Leo's head tilted to the side as an amused expression crossed his face. A smile played at the corners of his lips.

“I am sorry if my schedule angers you. I didn't plan on having a reporter staying in my house when I made my schedule. I just assumed a lot of free time would help you adjust. You'll just have to find ways to entertain yourself, I suppose.” Leo turned away, returning back to Malakai. Darcy glared after him for a moment. She was dumbfounded by his hot and cold personality. She wanted to find him cold and distant, though obviously misunderstood. However, he did seem to have a caring and warm side to him as well. “Is there something else?”

Leo glared in her direction, which forced her to cross her arms and glance in the live camera's direction. She found that the celebrity felt easily vulnerable and maybe that was the reason for his quick personality changes. Darcy pursed her lips, realizing that her boss had been the one to expose Leo's vulnerability. With a shake of her head, she retreated to her room.

“You look tired.” Max whispered in Darcy's ear. Although he was filming, any unwanted audio could be edited before going public. After all, it was only a short piece of film that documented their travel in Leo's van.

Darcy had received a terrible wake up call in the form of an urgent knock on her door. Leo had informed her that he had been summoned to the police department. She then had to rush through a shower and getting prepared to film for at least the first part of the day.

“I couldn't fall asleep last night after...” Darcy's voice trailed off. She had already told Max what had happened the previous night as there was no way she could hide the bandage covering her face, though Christine had done her best to not make it so noticeable. “Anyway I was up late reviewing the live feed.”

“Darcy.” Max's voice held all the resentment in his voice. He hadn't been happy to see the wound across her cheek or the fact that she hadn't gone to the hospital. She simply couldn't afford that kind of expense.

“It seems like Leo's fans are mostly defending him. There were more hate comments directed towards me then to him.” Darcy, especially after the encounter with one of Leo's fans, had become horrified at the number of negative comments towards her. Max glared in her direction, already not happy that she had purposely cut in to what he was going to say.

Darcy shuddered thinking about what his fans would say after filming in his van. It was quite remarkable that a few days ago she was a forgettable reporter and now she was seen as the worst human being society has seen. All of this due to Leo James' influence. Even with a possible serial killer on the lose, all the attention seemed to be focused on her.

When Max finished filming the short film, Darcy leaned her head against Max's arm and pondered why her life was taking a chaotic turn. She turned her head and was surprised to find Leo looking back at her. They met eyes momentarily before he raised his eyes away from her. He had been sitting in the passenger seat next to Malakai, allowing Max and her to have the back of the van to film as needed.

“We are almost there.” Leo announced shortly.

“Woah, what is this.” Malakai jammed on the breaks, the tires squealing with the effort. People lined up on the sidewalk and the crowd flowed onto the street. These people held signs that announced Leo's innocence or simply had posters of Leo that they were carrying through the street. Darcy was appalled to find that her own name was on some of these signs.

“Seems like we have a new celebrity.” Max glanced angrily down at her. Darcy shook her head as she stared outside. The van could only creep along slowly and Max took the opportunity to film the masses as they passed while Darcy remained silent to examine the large amounts of Leo's fans just outside the van. She swallowed back the fear she felt.

“How'd they know that you'd be here, Leo? This schedule wasn't released to the public.” Malakai seemed to indirectly place blame on Darcy as they met eyes through the rear-view mirror.

Darcy remained quiet, but she was also wondering how this many people got word of the meeting. She racked her brain until suddenly a light bulb seemed to go off. Max gave her a curious look.

“You guys didn't happen to say anything in front of the live cameras this morning, did you? Anyone watching would have heard you and possibly even spread the news.” There was silence for a moment before Malakai cursed and hit the steering wheel with the palm of his hand.

“Sorry Leo, that was my mistake.” Malakai instantly apologized.

“That's ok. It is going to take time to get adjusted to having our privacy invaded.”

Darcy felt as though they'd never make it to the police station. Even when they did arrive, the place was crawling with an unthinkable amount of people and officers swarmed the area to attempt some kind of order around the area. These officers help Leo, Malakai, Max and her get into the station safely. Max had wanted to film the area but Leo refused to allow him as it wasn't safe. Darcy expressed her discontent at Leo by crossing her arms once they were in the station.

“Look, I'm sorry. However, it is really dangerous.” Leo pointed outside to where some people had broken through the lines of officers and were now standing just outside the door. “Besides, I'd prefer not to have any more run ins with my extreme fans. We already had a taste of that last night.”

After Leo's comment, Darcy allowed her anger to dissipate.

“Leo! No media.” Darcy recognized the police chief Grant as Leo was summoned through double doors. They returned only a few minutes later and shook hands in front of everyone.

“Leo has a great idea as long as you'd be willing to help, D.W.” Chief Grant directed his attention at Darcy. She glanced at Max before giving a small nod of her head which halted Max's filming.

“There is no evidence that I murdered anyone. However, I suggested that we release to the media that there has been evidence found and that police will continue looking at both crime scenes. We are assuming that once the killer hears the message the killer will return to the scenes to try to clean up further.”

“It's similar to our situation today. With Malakai's accidental message came large results.” Max seemed impressed by Leo's idea.

“Chief Grant? How do you feel about having a short interview with me? It shouldn't take long at all.” Darcy grinned, her creative juices beginning to flow. She had a plan to help out with Leo's idea.

 “I was hoping we could use your talents, D.W.” Grant smiled back at her. “Shall we?”